Vertex’s (VERX) “Market Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at JMP Securities

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX)‘s stock had its “market outperform” rating reissued by equities researchers at JMP Securities in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $61.00 price objective on the stock. JMP Securities’ target price points to a potential upside of 11.09% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Vertex from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on shares of Vertex from $42.00 to $52.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Vertex from $43.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Vertex from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $35.00 to $50.00 in a report on Monday, November 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vertex presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $52.30.

Vertex Stock Performance

NASDAQ VERX traded down $1.40 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $54.91. 87,186 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 782,252. Vertex has a 12-month low of $23.31 and a 12-month high of $57.74. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $46.76 and a 200 day moving average of $39.85. The company has a market cap of $8.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 307.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 10.57 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 1.04, a current ratio of 1.04 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.29.

Vertex (NASDAQ:VERX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.02. Vertex had a return on equity of 24.92% and a net margin of 4.73%. The business had revenue of $170.40 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $165.70 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.06 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Vertex will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Vertex

In other news, General Counsel Bryan T.R. Rowland sold 3,020 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $55.08, for a total value of $166,341.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, major shareholder Jeffrey Westphal sold 2,485,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.90, for a total transaction of $121,516,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,895 shares in the company, valued at $386,065.50. The trade was a 99.68 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,202,949 shares of company stock valued at $192,797,340 over the last three months. 44.58% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vertex

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Vertex by 406.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 34,386 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,324,000 after buying an additional 27,602 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vertex in the second quarter worth approximately $22,173,000. DRW Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Vertex in the third quarter valued at approximately $840,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Vertex by 10.0% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 248,001 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,940,000 after purchasing an additional 22,514 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Federated Hermes Inc. acquired a new position in Vertex during the second quarter worth approximately $1,824,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.32% of the company’s stock.

Vertex Company Profile

Vertex, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides enterprise tax technology solutions for retail trade, wholesale trade, and manufacturing industries in the United States and internationally. The company offers tax determination; compliance and reporting, including workflow management tools, role-based security, and event logging; tax data management; document management; analytics and insights; pre-built integration that includes mapping data fields, and business logic and configurations; industry-specific solutions; and technology specific solutions, such as chain flow accelerator and SAP-specific tools.